Every bulb on Govee’s new outdoor string lights can display multicolor effects

Available starting today through Govee’s online store and Amazon, the Outdoor Chromatic String Lights are available in two lengths: a 32-foot option with 10 bulbs for $169.99 and a 65-foot…

Samsung adds native AirDrop support to Galaxy S26 devices

Samsung is bringing AirDrop support to the Quick Share feature on Galaxy devices, starting with the S26 series. The new AirDrop feature will begin rolling out in Korea starting today,…

AI influencer awards season is upon us

First came the AI beauty pageant. Then the AI music contests. Now, there is an award for AI Personality of the Year — perhaps the inevitable next step for the…

Topical Dancer is propulsive, playful, and political

Last week’s recommendation, Sotomayor’s Wabi Sabi, has a very particular vibe that you don’t find in a lot of records. One of the few things it called to mind was…

Crimson Desert dev apologizes for use of AI art

Reviews of Crimson Desert have been mixed, but the bigger issue for the game has been the discovery of what appeared to be AI-generated assets in the final release. Now…

The secret story of the vocoder, the military tech that changed music

The vocoder was never supposed to be a revolution in music. It wasn’t supposed to be anything in music, really. Its development began a century ago, when an engineer at…

Musk says he’s building Terafab chip plant in Austin, Texas

Elon Musk announced plans to build a Terafab plant in Austin, Texas, that will be jointly run by Tesla and SpaceX. The goal is to eventually build chips at scale…

The pint-sized Sonos Roam 2 is more over 20 percent this weekend

Sonos is no stranger to the occasional sale. The iconic audio company routinely runs sales around Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day, and the Super Bowl, though it’s rare to see…

AI was everywhere at gaming’s big developer conference — except the games

AI was everywhere at the GDC Festival of Gaming this year. Vendors at the event pitched generative AI tools for things like making AI-driven NPCs and even entire games from…

Online age checks came first — a VPN crackdown could be next

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about online age verification and your privacy, follow Emma Roth. The…